Carl Rowe
I am an artist living and working in the East of England. My studio practice is based in Suffolk, and I work part-time as Senior Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts. I have engaged with creative and academic projects widely in the UK and in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Canada, US, Estonia, Japan, Malaysia, and Egypt. In addition to studio production, I work on public art initiatives including billboards, print portfolios and commissions. In 2018 I was invited by the charity Hospital Rooms to make work for Woodlands Mental Health Unit at Ipswich Hospital and again in 2019 for Northside House Forensic Mental Health Unit. Recent creative workshops have been devised for Hospital Rooms, HMP Norwich, Clear Channel, Norfolk and Suffolk Secure & Forensic Services and The Restoration Trust. I am a member of OUTPOST gallery and studios, East Anglia Art Fund, and the Printmakers Council, and a trustee of Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society.
I make paintings, prints, drawings, and objects. My approach to making art sways between concept and not knowing. The subjects that I question through my creative process are diverse and include pollen, eels, scaffolds, calibrations, logos, traps, donuts, and domestic objects. Real space coexists with imaginary space in an implausible graphic paradigm. Physical things are incorporated into paintings and painted surfaces evolve into concrete objects. Colour is notable, in some works naturalistic and low key, but in others it is ramped-up to a feverish vibrancy. All of this appears within seemingly non-sensical and vexing unions. There is a strong sense of duality and unseen forces at play. Some works have no discernible subject matter, others are like signs or cyphers or warnings.
Exhibitions
2025
Bloc Projects (two-person with Desmond Brett), Sheffield
Flat Volume, A.P.T. Gallery, London
Summer Contemporary, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Printmakers Council at 60, Oxo Tower Wharf, London
Summer Exhibition, Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
2024
6th International Printmaking Bienniale, Čačak, Serbia
Hospital Rooms Digital Art School, Hauser & Wirth, London
Mandell's Summer Show, Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
2023
Colour, Cromer Artspace, Norfolk
Holding Space, Hospital Rooms, Hauser & Wirth, London
The Assembly House Summer Open, Norwich
2022
Mandell's Gallery Winter Exhibition, Norwich
studioUS, an Original Projects exhibition at PRIMEYARC, Great Yarmouth
2021
Not Quite Aligned, (solo) Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
Northside House / Hospital Rooms, (group) EastGalleryNUA, including: Dexter Dalwood, Naomi Harwin, Jade Montserrat, Cara Nahaul, Richard Wentworth
Somewhere Unexpected: Norwich Castle Open, (group) Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Waiting Place, (group) The Art Station, Suffolk
Territory, (group touring) The Wright Gallery, Texas A & M University,
2020
Colour, Printmakers Council online exhibition in conjunction with Royal Overseas League, London
Unrealised, May 2020, Group exhibition in virtual gallery PSX including: Fay Nicolson, Marcia Farquhar, Henry Jackson Newcomb, Klanghaus, Sarah Cameron, Krzysztof Fijalkowski and others. Curated by Carl Rowe.
Essentials, April 2020, Group exhibition in virtual gallery PSX including: Richard Sawdon Smith, Martin Firrell, Cécile Pitois, Sarah Horton, Olivia Bax, Marcus Cope and others. Curated by Carl Rowe
2019
Hospital Rooms, Waterfront Gallery, Ipswich (with Tal Rosner, Nancy Milner, Rebecca Byrne, Nick Knight and Tim A Shaw)
Territory, (group touring) Lust and the Apple, Edinburgh (May), CLB Berlin (April)
2018
Ecstasy in Norwich, LOWER.GREEN, Norwich
State of Print, (group touring) - Norwich (November 2018), Preston (December 2018), DCA Dundee (March 2019) Cork City Hall (June 2019)
WAC 2018 - Wells Art Contemporary, Bishop's Palace, Wells, Somerset
Cracking, Biblioteca Central, Santander, Spain
9th International Printmaking Biennial, Douro, Portugal
2017
OUTPOST members' show, selected by Andy Holden
We Came Here to Conquer, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
BALLOT (touring), CIT Crawford College of Art & Design (June), Contemporary Art Museum Naples (September) Nunnsyard Gallery Norwich (October)
Rudi Dutschke, group show at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge
3rd Global Print 2017, Douro, Portugal (August 2017)
Lasting Impressions: Selected Work from the Printmakers Council Archive, Scarborough Art Gallery
2016
Constellation, group show at The Undercroft, Norwich. In collaboration with Piet Zwart Institute, Netherlands
We Came Here to Conquer II, Group print exhibition, Norwich
East/West, collaborative print portfolio (curated and published by Carl Rowe) exhibited at China Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, China.
2015
Okanagan Print Triennial, British Columbia, Canada
Hidden in Plain Sight, NUA Gallery, Norwich
Commissions, Installations, Performance and Public Works
2024
Gravity, multi-panel mural for Willow Therapy Unit, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
2021
BE, Hospital Rooms commission for Northside House, Forensic mental health unit, Norwich. https://hospital-rooms.com/northside-house
2018
Have Strength Find Peace, Hospital Rooms commission for Woodlands mental health unit at Ipswich Hospital, https://hospital-rooms.com
2014
Jackpot, editioned print for Nuffield Hospital Cambridge (commissioned) in connection with billboard public art project.
Reviews and Catalogues
2025
Longworth-West., et al, Flat Volume, A.P.T. Gallery, London (2025) ISBN 978-1-7397317-5-5
2021
Geitner, A., Distant Signals, Catalogue essay for Not Quite Aligned, Mandell's Gallery, Norwich (2021)
Eustance, P and Steer, T., Northside House: A Hospital Rooms Project, Hospital Rooms, London (2021) ISBN 978-1-80068-289-4
2018
White, N., Hospital Rooms: Woodlands, Hospital Rooms, London (2018)
2015
Low, J. Material Consciousness, Vernon Public Art Gallery, British Columbia, (2015) ISBN 978-1-927407-16-5
2011
Kaljula, L., For Love Not Money p353 ISBN 978-9949-21-547-8, Tallinn, 2011
Qualifications
MA Fine Art Printmaking, Manchester Polytechnic 1985
BA Honours Fine Art, Manchester Polytechnic 1984
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK
Employment
Senior Research Fellow (part-time) Norwich University of the Arts. http://www.nua.ac.uk
Memberships
Norwich Outpost Gallery. Artist member http://www.norwichoutpost.org/
Axis web. Artist member http://www.axisweb.org/
Printmakers Council
Bloc Projects
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.